Before you invest in native and cross-platform mobile

The version of this that works is simpler than the version most people imagine. Before you spend anything on native and cross-platform mobile, it is worth confirming a few things are already true.

You do not control the device, the network, or the operating system version, and the design has to accept that. It is the sort of thing that looks like polish right up until it costs you an enquiry.

Prerequisites

• You can describe the outcome you want in one sentence
• Someone owns it after the work is done
• Cross-platform is a team decision as much as a technical one
• You have a way to tell whether it worked

Common failure modes

Heavy device integration still favours native. That sounds obvious written down. It is still the thing most often skipped. Assume whoever inherits this will have half your context and none of your patience.

Shipping one codebase badly is worse than two well. This is the sort of thing that compounds, quietly, in both directions. If two people in the business would answer this differently, that gap is the actual problem.

How to tell if yours is fine

Mobile releases are slower to correct than web ones, so the cost of shipping a mistake is higher. Three things worth confirming about native and cross-platform mobile before you move on:

• Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
• Heavy device integration still favours native — and you know whether that is true here
• There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped

Pick the one that would hurt most if it failed, and start there.